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PROMPT POST 1
Please make sure you've read the rules post first, and play nice!
Flat comment page here just to clarify, as a few people have been asking, art fills are also very much welcomed!
Please make sure you've read the rules post first, and play nice!
Flat comment page here just to clarify, as a few people have been asking, art fills are also very much welcomed!
"So?" Carles asked, grinning. Andres supposed they all took their amusement where they could find it, but he wished his teammates didn't find watching Victor smother him half to death with well-meaning attention quite so hilarious.
"It went fine," he repeated.
"For varying definitions of fine," Xavi amended. "Andresito here fainted. Fell right out of his chair."
Andres wanted very much to kick Xavi, but he could still feel the echo of how badly he'd scared him earlier, so he settled instead for pointing out, "Well, Xavi threw up."
Carles laughed. "An auspicious beginning, eh? Nowhere to go but up. Well. Am I driving you straight home, then?"
Andres instinctively clutched harder at Xavi's hand, and then wanted to kick himself. Xavi didn't even look over at him, but he said, as if casually, "I think I'll stick with Andrew for a while, make sure he's settled. Sorry to make you wait for nothing, Puyi."
Victor eyed them both for a minute, then shrugged. "Look, Andres looks like he might pass out again and my place is closer than his anyway. I'll take you back there to rest, and if you're feeling better later, we can have dinner together. My guest bedroom is big enough for both of you. I'd have to go pick up Andres for practice tomorrow morning anyway, it saves me the extra drive." He unlocked the back door of the car and held it open. "You should come too, Puyi. Keep me company while they're sleeping."
Carles and Victor kept talking, but Andres stopped paying attention at that point and just collapsed gratefully into the backseat of Victor's car. Xavi slid in beside him, close enough that Andres didn't have to stretch to put his head on Xavi's shoulder, and the world went comfortably blurry for a while. He faded back into consciousness a few times - he remembered a familiar song on the radio, and Victor talking quietly to Xavi as he drove, and even Xavi taking his sunglasses off and then the weight of Xavi's hand on the nape of his neck - but for the most part the trip to Victor's was a warm fuzzy blank. He woke up long enough to stumble into the house and landed face-first on the bed in the guest bedroom less than a minute afterwards.
He couldn't quite vocalize what he wanted with a mouthful of pillow, but Xavi was curled up next to him before he could even really try, and then Andres was asleep again.
*
The sun had long since set when Andres finally resurfaced. The room was unfamiliar but he knew without having to think about it that the arm thrown across him was Xavi's. Andres lay quietly for a moment, reminding himself that Emili had promised the bond would stop being so overwhelming eventually, and climbed out of bed to go look for Victor.
He found him in the kitchen, reading the newspaper at the table. "Hey," Andres said, and put his hands on Victor's shoulders. Victor didn't jump.
"Hey yourself," he offered, twisting around a little to look up at Andres. "You missed Puyi, he left a couple hours ago. Are you hungry? We ate already, but we saved some for you and Xavi."
"I think I'll wait till I know I'm not going to be throwing up tomorrow," Andres said. "It won't kill me to go hungry for one night."
"Suit yourself," Victor sighed, sounding martyred as usual by Andres' refusal to take proper care of himself. "Where's Xavi, anyway?"
"Still sleeping. It's not like he was fainting all over the place, I don't know why he's so tired," Andres added with a soft laugh.
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"Victor!" Andres hissed. "He's our vice-captain and my bondmate, you are not allowed to threaten Xavi."
"I didn't threaten him," Victor said, with an eyeroll that Andres could actually hear in his voice even if he couldn't see it. "We just talked."
"But you're not going to tell me about what, right," Andres said.
"Right."
Andres sighed. He could probably pester whatever it was out of Victor, given enough time, but he wasn't sure it was worth it, and anyway Xavi was waking up. "All right. I'll be right back."
"Go back to bed! It's after midnight!" Victor called after him. "If you oversleep and make me late to practice tomorrow morning I will kill you!"
Andres smiled to himself all the way back to Victor's guest bedroom. In the light from the hallway, he could just barely make out Xavi sitting up in the middle of the bed. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"All right. Still tired, I think. You?"
"Well, I don't think I'll have any trouble getting back to sleep," Andres said wryly. He sat on the edge of the bed, then hesitated. "Can I?"
"You don't have to ask. You don't ever have to ask, you understand?" Even in the dark, Andres could feel Xavi's eyes fixed on him, but he shrugged them off and lay down so that his face was tucked against Xavi's shoulder. Xavi immediately wrapped an arm around him, pulling him even closer. "I will give you anything you need, Andresito," Xavi said, soft and serious, like a promise. "Anything you want. Everything. You never have to ask."
There was absolutely nothing Andres could say in reply to that, so he let the words die away into a silence that wasn't as awkward as it could have been. He knew Xavi knew what he felt; really, he didn't need to say anything at all. "So Victor said he talked to you while I was asleep," he offered at last, because he really was curious.
Xavi laughed, and any lingering tension vanished. "Victor really loves you, you know."
"Yeah, I do." Andres yawned hugely and audibly, then winced. "Sorry."
"Go to sleep," Xavi said fondly, and so he did.
*
The next morning, Andres could tell that both Xavi and Victor were making a concerted effort to seem as normal as possible, joking around and nagging him to eat breakfast respectively, but really he didn't think it was necessary. The dizziness was completely gone, he'd slept off the exhaustion, and neither he nor Xavi felt nauseous at all. Things were normal. Andres just wanted to get on the pitch.
When they got to Camp Nou, Rijkaard had the two of them working separately from the squad while Emili kept an eye on them. They played together for hours, no goal, no opposing team, just running together with the ball. Andres kept his head down and still knew exactly where Xavi was, exactly where he would be. He could have been blindfolded and it wouldn't have made a difference. He didn't want to stop for lunch; he wanted to stay there forever with nothing in his mind but the ball and the pitch and Xavi, making pass after pass after impossibly perfect pass.
*
Emili was right, and the bond stopped invading Andres' consciousness every waking moment, although he wasn't sure that it was getting weaker so much as he was getting used to having Xavi somewhere in the back of his head. But Xavi could also shut him out, sometimes, which was maybe supposed to keep from disturbing him when they weren't playing but felt awful. It was like he'd suddenly gone blind or deaf, and Andres hated it. Xavi did it the night after that first practice together and Andres got so dizzy he almost fainted again, and woke up in the middle of the night with horrible dreams about someone cutting off his feet.
He didn't say anything, because Xavi must have had his reasons, but when he did it again the next night, Andres cracked after a few hours and called him. "Please stop it," he said in a rush when Xavi picked up the phone. Xavi had promised - promised -
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"I'm sorry," Andres blurted, "but I can't - please don't."
"Oh god, I'm so sorry," Xavi said, horrified. "I didn't think - I have to cut everyone else off, I'd go crazy if I knew where they all were off the pitch, too. I didn't realize - "
"I'm not everyone else, I'm your bondmate," Andres said, and maybe he was more upset about it than he'd realized, because he was starting to get hysterical. "You can't - "
"I won't," Xavi said. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. Andresito, it's all right, I'm sorry, I'll stop. Breathe." Andres could feel Xavi frantically trying to sort of fling reassurance at him from across the city. It wasn't working, but it was still a little comforting to realize that he wasn't the only one muddling through this - sometimes Xavi didn't have a clue either. "Do you - would you feel better if I was there?" Xavi asked uncertainly, when Andres had calmed down. "I could drive over."
"It's half an hour just to get to the city from your parents' place, and it's late," Andres pointed out. "And anyway, I'm fine."
"Fine my ass, you were almost crying a minute ago," Xavi muttered.
"I was not crying," Andres said indignantly.
"No? Good, I'm pretty sure that was somewhere near the top of the list of things Victor will kill me for."
"Xavi."
"Andres," Xavi mimicked. Andres could hear a faint rustling sound and knew without thinking about it that Xavi was in bed. "Are you sure you don't want me to come over? The drive really isn't that bad at night." The enormous yawn he let out immediately afterward somewhat undermined his offer.
"I'm pretty sure if you fall asleep behind the wheel and crash your car I'll be more upset, not less," Andres said.
"Don't be such a brat," Xavi said, and yawned again. "I don't even know why I'm so tired. It's not like we've been training very hard."
"Emili said this could happen for the next couple of weeks. Weren't you listening when he was talking about side-effects?" Xavi hummed noncommittally, and Andres sighed. "You're going to have to tell me what's been bothering you sooner or later, you know."
"Maybe tomorrow," Xavi said, after a long pause. He didn't say anything after that, but he didn't hang up the phone, either. Andres fell asleep listening to Xavi's breathing. He didn't remember his dreams.
*
The next day was when Emili had said they could go back to training with the team. He'd thrown in some pleased noises about how well they were progressing, too, but Andres had mostly been paying attention to how tense Xavi was. He was even worse in the locker room in the morning. Andres stuck close to Victor like always, but he tried to keep an eye on Xavi. He seemed fine; he joked around a lot with Carles and they both were sort of half-heartedly teasing Leo, who'd been called up to train with the first team so many times they'd all lost count but hadn't quite lost the wide eyes yet. If Andres hadn't been able to feel that Xavi's stomach was a mess of knots, he wouldn't have known anything was wrong. And he still didn't know what it was.
They weren't paired up for stretching so he couldn't ask then, and they weren't even put on the same team for five-a-side. Andres had decided to just corner Xavi at lunch, and forget about it until then, when they started playing and he was hit with a wave of relief from Xavi so strong it almost knocked him over. He lost the ball, and Xavi's team scored.
Leo ran over to Andres, his eyes even bigger than usual. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Should I get a physio?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Andres said, and ruffled his hair. "I wasn't paying attention, that's all. Come on, now we've got to equalize." Xavi had the ball. Andres saw where he was going to pass it, intercepted, passed to Leo. Leo scored. Xavi made a face at him and mouthed, "cheater," but Andres just grinned. As much as he loved running around with Xavi, he'd missed playing football.
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"Good game," Xavi said behind him. "Even if you did cheat."
"You did too," Andres said, and leaned backwards into Xavi, knowing he could support his weight for a moment. "Are you going to tell me what that was about?"
It was a sincere question and Xavi considered it as such, although Andres realized after a moment that his wording had been harsher than he'd intended. "Emili said they weren't sure how I would react to the bonding," he said eventually. "Because they've never seen anyone who could hear everyone the way I can. He said there was a possibility I wouldn't be sensitive to anyone but you anymore. It wasn't a big possibility, or else the míster wouldn't have gone ahead with it, but they didn't know for sure. Anyway, it turned out fine, so I guess there was nothing to worry about."
"But - Guardiola," Andres said, choosing not to voice his immediate thought of why didn't you tell me, because he knew already, and he wouldn't like the answer any better if Xavi said it out loud. "Guardiola was bonded."
"Oh," Xavi said. He sounded startled. "I forgot that you never played with him. Pep isn't like me, he's not sensitive. He told me once that he could barely even feel Figo, and they'd been bonded for almost four years then. Pep is loud. He couldn't hear anyone, but we could all hear him."
Andres thought about that for a minute, still leaning into Xavi's shoulder. He was thirsty, a little, but he didn't want to interrupt their conversation to go get a drink. Xavi handed over his half-full water bottle without comment. "When Figo left," Andres said. "And everyone was… everyone was so angry, and upset. My roommates got into fights. A lot of the students had nightmares."
"I still don't know if Pep knew he was doing that," Xavi admitted. "I wanted to ask him, but - I mean, he wouldn't have done it on purpose. It's not like he wanted anyone to get hurt. He wouldn't have wanted the fans to throw things at Luis in Camp Nou. But Luis was the one we would have asked to get him to stop." He rested his forehead on the back of Andres' head for a moment, then gently pushed him away and started walking towards the rest of the team. "Pep said he forgave Luis. He said he understood why he left. I don't know if it was true. I wouldn't have."
Andres grabbed Xavi's arm. "All right. But I'm your bondmate, and I'm not going to leave. So don't ever keep secrets from me again." He glared when Xavi turned around to stare at him, and jogged off to join Victor too quickly for Xavi to say anything in reply. After a moment he realized he still had Xavi's water bottle, but under the circumstances he thought it probably served Xavi right.
"What was that?" Victor asked, surprised.
"Nothing," Andres spat, then shook his head. "Sorry. I'm not - Xavi didn't tell me something he should have, that's all. It'll be fine."
"Do I need to threaten him some more?" Victor sounded at least half-serious.
Andres laughed and leaned into Victor's hand when he ruffled his hair. "Violence is never the answer, asshole. Come on, the mister is calling." He finished off Xavi's water and put it aside, then let Victor shepherd him into the clump of defenders standing to Rijkaard's left. He could feel Xavi looking at him, but the coach was talking and Andres couldn't spare the concentration to figure out what he was thinking.
Xavi came over to him when the mister finished, and the five-a-side teams had been reshuffled so they were on the same one and Victor wasn't; Andres couldn't avoid him. "I didn't - "
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"Okay," Xavi said. He started to reach out to touch Andres' shoulder or maybe his cheek, but he let his hand fall before it got even halfway. "Okay."
It was fine while they were playing. As soon as the ball was in play nothing else mattered, and Andres' passes to Xavi were as impossibly perfect as ever. It still didn't make him any less furious once practice was over, and he was kind of glad that Emili showed up and dragged him off for a quick check-up before Xavi could corner him.
It only took a few minutes - Emili just wanted to check his blood pressure and pupil dilation and cluck a little about getting enough sleep - and then he was asking if he had any questions and somehow Andres couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth. "Why didn't you tell me what the bonding could do to Xavi?"
Emili blinked at him. Andres was pretty sure Emili had never seen him look angry before. "About the potential for reducing his sensitivity to other players, you mean? I do have to respect doctor-patient confidentiality, you know," he said mildly. "And Xavi asked me to let him tell you himself."
"Of course he did," Andres muttered. "Of course he - if something is going to hurt him or make him sick or anything, I want to know. I want you to tell me right away. He's my bondmate and I need to know."
"Ah," Emili said. He was doing a remarkable job of not looking at Andres as if he was having a psychotic break, but Andres wouldn't have blamed him for thinking it. "Well, you could have have the club lawyers draw up papers to make you medical proxies for each other. It isn't how things are usually handled but I think there's some precedent. Xavi would have to be willing to sign them, though."
"Oh, he'll be willing," Andres said grimly.
"I… see." Emili busied himself with putting away his sphygmomanometer and flashlight, presumably to give himself time to control his expression. Andres hated himself a little bit, and Xavi a little bit more. "It's extremely unlikely that there will be any other effects from your bonding, though. I know your initial reaction was a little - strong, but we did look into it for anything that could be a medical issue, and it was only because you two are unusually compatible. It won't cause any problems later on."
"Shouldn't you have expected that?" Andres asked, a little skeptical. "I mean, it's Xavi."
"Sensitive and compatible are not the same thing. It is a common misconception, but you should have been taught that at La Masia," Emili lectured. "Xavi is very sensitive and also incompatible with almost every player who has ever passed through Barcelona. If you hadn't agreed I would never have allowed Rijkaard to have him bonded. With any other player on the current team it could have killed him or driven him insane."
Andres thought he was actually past the point where he could get any angrier with Xavi. It was just - useless. "Oh. But there's no risk of that now."
"Oh, no - Andres, there's nothing to worry about. Everything is perfectly fine with both of you. You shouldn't be fretting yourself." Emili smiled at him reassuringly. "Now, off you go, before you miss lunch completely. I didn't mean to keep you so long."
Andres didn't feel capable of speaking normally to any of his teammates, so he headed straight to the parking garage. He could drive home, have lunch, and hopefully by the time he had to be back for the afternoon session he wouldn't want to strangle his bondmate quite so badly. It was a wasted effort, though, because Xavi was sitting on the hood of his car waiting for him. "Hey," Xavi said.
"Hey," Andres said flatly.
Xavi winced. He met Andres' eyes for a second, then looked down at his hands. "I didn't - I didn't mean to upset you. I'm sorry."
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"Andresito. I do. I will. I know I'm not - good at telling you things sometimes. But I'll try to be better. I promise, I do trust you." Xavi glanced over at Andres, looking pathetic and sad and hopeful, and if Andres hadn't been able to feel how much he meant it he would have shoved him off the car for trying to pull those puppy eyes on him.
"You'd better," he said firmly, and couldn't help smiling when Xavi sagged a little in relief. "Because we're going to be amazing."
"Fucking amazing," Xavi corrected.
Andres laughed. He looked down at Xavi's hand resting on the car between them, and before he could think about it he reached down to catch it in his own. "Fucking amazing," he agreed. He could feel Xavi's confidence and his love running through his blood like oxygen, and in that moment he had never believed anything as much as he believed in them.
notes: Most of this is obviously completely made-up - hello, soulbonding fic! But Emili Ricart really is one of the Barcelona physios, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta really do have an astonishing on-pitch connection that has led some journalists to describe them as "footballing soulmates" and Victor Valdes really is Andres Iniesta's best friend. They've known each other since they were roommates in Andres' first year at La Masia, when he was in fact still crying himself to sleep over how much he missed his parents. (The part about Victor mother-henning him to death is pure speculative fiction, though.)
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The part about Victor mother-henning him to death is pure speculative fiction, though
and what a delightful bit of speculation it is!
I am really over the moon this got filled so well. You went above and beyond what I wanted and I read this whole thing with a progressively growing smile. Thank you so so so so much, a million besos. :******
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Fantastic, anon, great job! Hope you write more about Xaviesta...I love this pairing and it's a pity it's not written so often. And oh I loved that Cesc is sensitive too...
Anyway, brilliant work!
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So yeah. Seconding.
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